What were these pieces of equipment used for? - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Superscope · 25th Feb 2023, 4:55 pm

Not sure if this is the right place for this question, but since this is
almost certainly Telephone Exchange equipment, I thought I would
ask here.

Do we have any Telephone Exchange Engineers who are familiar
with these Two pieces of equipment.
Can't seem to find anything about them.

I believe they may have been used in Strowger Exchanges, and are
almost certainly Ex BT.

Can anybody tell me what they were used for?

I assume the first piece of equipment was for testing the signalling
somehow judging by the labeling.

Ian

Ian

Dave Moll · 25th Feb 2023, 6:22 pm

I'm no telephone exchange engineer, but I recognise the first item as a BT Display Unit 11a. One of these turned up for auction recently, so I asked a similar question on the Telephone Heritage Group forum and was informed that it displays dialled digits, either Loop Disconnect (pulse) or DTMF (tone).

Needless to say, I was unsuccessful in acquiring the one for auction.

Graham G3ZVT · 26th Feb 2023, 7:25 pm

I've got what you might call the Toys R Us version of the first item.

It was issued to me when we were doing a lot of alternative carrier work and we needed to know exactly what a PABX trunk was prefixing when dialling out.

SiriusHardware · 27th Feb 2023, 9:37 pm

We have one of those Digitell units at work along with several of its bench top big brothers, the Testel 100E. None of that stuff from Tele-Products was ever at all cheap, despite appearances. The 100Es were about £500-£600 the last time we bought one, just before they were discontinued.

The thing I mainly dislike about both units is that they only have 10(?) character wide displays, not enough to display a 'long' telephone number in a steady state. Instead they scroll the number slowly across the screen.

25th Feb 2023, 4:55 pm	#1
Superscope Octode Join Date: May 2017 Location: St Austell, Cornwall, UK. Posts: 1,018	What were these pieces of equipment used for? Not sure if this is the right place for this question, but since this is almost certainly Telephone Exchange equipment, I thought I would ask here. Do we have any Telephone Exchange Engineers who are familiar with these Two pieces of equipment. Can't seem to find anything about them. I believe they may have been used in Strowger Exchanges, and are almost certainly Ex BT. Can anybody tell me what they were used for? I assume the first piece of equipment was for testing the signalling somehow judging by the labeling. Ian Ian Attached Thumbnails

25th Feb 2023, 6:22 pm	#2
Dave Moll Dekatron Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK Posts: 6,127	Re: What were these pieces of equipment used for? I'm no telephone exchange engineer, but I recognise the first item as a BT Display Unit 11a. One of these turned up for auction recently, so I asked a similar question on the Telephone Heritage Group forum and was informed that it displays dialled digits, either Loop Disconnect (pulse) or DTMF (tone). Needless to say, I was unsuccessful in acquiring the one for auction. __________________ Mending is better than Ending (cf Brave New World by Aldous Huxley)

26th Feb 2023, 7:25 pm	#3
Graham G3ZVT Dekatron Join Date: May 2010 Location: Greater Manchester, UK. Posts: 18,713	Re: What were these pieces of equipment used for? I've got what you might call the Toys R Us version of the first item. It was issued to me when we were doing a lot of alternative carrier work and we needed to know exactly what a PABX trunk was prefixing when dialling out. Attached Thumbnails __________________ -- Graham. G3ZVT

27th Feb 2023, 9:37 pm	#4
SiriusHardware Dekatron Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, UK. Posts: 11,556	Re: What were these pieces of equipment used for? We have one of those Digitell units at work along with several of its bench top big brothers, the Testel 100E. None of that stuff from Tele-Products was ever at all cheap, despite appearances. The 100Es were about £500-£600 the last time we bought one, just before they were discontinued. The thing I mainly dislike about both units is that they only have 10(?) character wide displays, not enough to display a 'long' telephone number in a steady state. Instead they scroll the number slowly across the screen.